Xiang Wang, senior vice president at Xiaomi, said: “We are excited to be working closely with Microsoft on a broad technology collaboration partnership."

He added: “As demonstrated by this agreement with Microsoft, Xiaomi is looking to build sustainable, long-term partnerships with global technology leaders, with the ultimate goal of bringing the best user experience to our Mi fans.”

Xiaomi is one of the fastest-growing smartphone manufacturers in the world. Founded only six years ago, it shipped 15 million units in the first quarter of this year according to Gartner. However, many of its sales have been transacted in the Chinese market, where it is currently the biggest vendor.

As for Microsoft, it's fair to say its presence in the smartphone market at best remains negligible.

Microsoft said: "This agreement builds on the companies’ partnership with Windows 10 on Mi Pad and Microsoft Azure powering the Mi Cloud service. Partnerships with companies such as Xiaomi are central to Microsoft’s strategy to work with industry leaders around the world to meet the needs of joint customers." ®